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Cambridge International Examinations
Cambridge Pre-U Certificate
9769/58
HISTORY
Paper 5h Special Subject: Gladstone and Disraeli, 1867–1886
May/June 2014
2 hours
Additional Materials:
Answer Booklet/Paper
* 0 9 0 8 3 2 5 8 4 1 *
READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST
If you have been given an Answer Booklet, follow the instructions on the front cover of the Booklet.
Write your Centre number, candidate number and name on all the work you hand in.
Write in dark blue or black pen.
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Do not use staples, paper clips, glue or correction fluid.
DO NOT WRITE IN ANY BARCODES.
Answer Question 1 and one other question.
You are reminded of the need for analysis and critical evaluation in your answers to questions. You should also
show, where appropriate, an awareness of links and comparisons between different countries and different
periods.
At the end of the examination, fasten all your work securely together.
The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question or part question.
This document consists of 4 printed pages.
DC (SJF) 84439/7
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2
Answer the following question.
Nominated topic: Gladstone’s political ideas
1
Study all the following documents and answer the questions which follow. In evaluating and
commenting upon the documents, it is essential to set them alongside, and to make use of, your
own contextual knowledge.
A
Gladstone advocates an increase in the number of working-class voters in a speech to the
House of Commons.
I have heard it said in the House that to increase the rights to vote of any portion of the
working class would be to bring about domestic revolution. I thought it time to remind the
House that as the working classes already take on the duties of citizenship, they deserve
the right to vote. The working classes are not adequately represented in this House. They
are not represented in accordance with their share in the income of the country. They are
not represented in proportion to their intelligence, their virtue or their loyalty. You cannot fight
against the future. The great social forces of progress are on our side. The banner which we
now carry will be borne by the united people towards a certain and not distant victory.
Adapted from Speech, 27 April 1866.
B
A Liberal MP, who was an active member of the National Education League, speaks to the
House of Commons in the debate on what became the 1870 Education Act.
The School Boards form the backbone of the Bill, and make it a measure which will be
acceptable to the country and reflect the ideas of progress and reform of the government.
However, I regard as the great weakness of the Bill that decisions about whether there
should be a separation made between religious and secular instruction in schools should
be left to the School Boards throughout the country instead of being directly laid down by
Parliament. The Boards will be influenced by their own religious feelings and are often hostile
to Nonconformism. I cannot, under these circumstances, approve the method by which the
government is dealing with religious difficulties. I am also sorry it should be thought necessary
to give merely permissive powers to the School Boards to enforce compulsory attendance.
This House ought to decide whether it should be made compulsory for parents to send their
children to school. I am disappointed to find the Government shrinking from the responsibility
of abolishing entirely all school fees. But my faith in the principle of the Bill is great.
George Dixon, Speech, 17 February 1870.
C
In the same debate another Liberal MP gives his view of the proposed Act.
I thank God I have lived to witness the introduction of such an admirable scheme of education
to help the working class. The School Boards are provided by the Bill with the machinery
necessary to secure the attendance of children at schools. I cannot myself believe that they
would neglect the duty to make sure attendance was compulsory, or that public opinion would
neglect to enforce this. When the frightful ignorance prevailing among the lower classes
is more generally known, all objections to compulsory education will vanish. I have never
regarded the religious difficulty as being of any considerable importance, because I believed
that the people of this country generally desire that their children should receive religious
teaching about principles of Christianity. The best proof of this is that 3,000,000 children
belonging to the working classes are in attendance at Sunday schools. I regard the Bill as
a step in the right direction, and expect that it will soon lead to a general system of national
education.
A. J. Mundella, Speech, 17 February 1870.
© UCLES 2014
9769/58/M/J/14
3
D
Gladstone makes an election speech during his Midlothian campaign.
We have great forces opposing our march towards progress. We cannot expect support from
the aristocracy. We cannot expect support from the landed interest; we cannot reckon on the
clergy of the Church of England. We can expect no support or understanding from those who
put their own interests before the interests of the public. But above these narrow interests,
there is a something greater: the nation itself. The nation is a power hard to rouse but, when
roused, harder still and hopeless to resist. This nation has found its interests ignored by the
present government. It has resolved that this state of things shall cease, and that right and
duty shall be done. It is our task to represent the nation.
Adapted from Speech at West Calder, 1 April 1880.
E
A biographer of Disraeli reflects on Gladstone’s ideas and their appeal to the masses.
While Gladstone’s ideas were pure, honest and well-intentioned, they were not calculated
to inspire popular enthusiasm and support. The fact is, he rarely thought of the people, or
rather that for him, the people meant the middle class. He no doubt regarded the abolition
of the purchase of commissions in the army as a measure of democratic reform which must
appeal to the masses. But, in fact, the masses cared nothing whether the test for becoming
an officer was to sign a large cheque or pass a fairly stiff examination in Latin and Algebra.
They knew that either was beyond the reach of a poor man. Again, Gladstone thought that
setting up elementary schools was conferring the greatest benefit a statesman could extend
to the common people. But in the nature of things, it was a benefit which was not appreciated
immediately and thought by some to be an act of tyranny. The middle classes respected
him for his ideas of financial discipline and for his morality, but he had little hold on working
men. His religious piety seemed to be at odds with his position at the head of a party which
contained those who were hostile to the established religion of the Church of England, or
indeed to religion in any form. In short, the ideas of the Government were not those which
chiefly appealed to the masses. Many in his party saw Gladstone as a concealed Tory.
E. T. Raymond, Disraeli, the Alien Patriot, 1925.
(a) How far are the views about the Education Bill given in Document B corroborated by
Document C?
[10]
(b) How convincing is the evidence presented by these documents for the view that, in the years
c.1866–80, Gladstone’s political ideas shaped the Liberals as a united party of progress?
In making your evaluation, you should refer to contextual knowledge as well as to all the
documents in this set [A–E].
[20]
© UCLES 2014
9769/58/M/J/14
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4
Answer one of the following questions. Where appropriate, your essay should make use of any
relevant documents you have studied as well as contextual knowledge.
2
What best explains why a minority Conservative government was able in 1867 to enact a major
parliamentary reform?
[30]
3
‘The evidence from his ministry of 1874–80 clearly shows that Disraeli’s domestic policies were
both limited in design and ineffective in execution.’ Discuss.
[30]
4
‘The electoral reforms of 1884–85 were the most significant achievement of Gladstone’s ministry
of 1880–85.’ Discuss.
[30]
Copyright Acknowledgements:
Question 1 Document E
© E. T. Raymond; Disraeli, the Alien Patriot ; Hodder & Stoughton; 1925.
Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.
Cambridge International Examinations is part of the Cambridge Assessment Group. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of University of Cambridge Local
Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is itself a department of the University of Cambridge.
© UCLES 2014
9769/58/M/J/14